The Phytonutrient Core of the UCLA Center for Excellence in Pancreatic Diseases will be critical in helping the proposed center achieve its key aims. The research goals of the Phytonutrient Core are to provide established and new methodologies for the study of the phytochemical content of plant/herbal extracts including bioactive and marker compounds. Specifically, the core will assist investigators in the preparation and analysis of plants/plant extracts for studies in vitro and in vivo. The core will assure the consistency and purity of extracts to be studied in various systems. The core will also provide methods for the preparation of biological samples and their analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) techniques. The following specific objectives will be achieved: 1) To provide standardization and analyses of plant/herbal extracts being studied in individual projects using HPLC, GC, GC/MS, LC/MS, and other established analytical methods; 2) To develop novel methods as needed to investigate bioactive and marker compounds in plant/herbal extracts and to assess animal plasma/tissue bioavailability of the phytonutrients; 3) To utilize the core facilities of the UCLA Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) Facility, the Consortium of Chemical and Bimolecular Magnetic Resonance Laboratories and the UCLA Pasarow Mass Spectrometry Laboratory as necessary to further identify and characterize the specific structures of compounds found in plant/herbal extracts. In each projects the source material to be tested will be certified to contain specific concentrations of phytonutrients or ratios of various phytochemicals which will enable meaningful basic investigations of mechanisms of action. There will be a dynamic interaction among the various projects and the cores. Therefore, this core will play a central and highly important role in the proposed program project.